


Quiet Reflections

by robron_til_the_end



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Family, Happy, Homecoming, M/M, Quiet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-08-31 04:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8563954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robron_til_the_end/pseuds/robron_til_the_end
Summary: Robert comes home after a long day of meetings to the one person he loves more than any other. Much more different to what I normally write! Set in the (hopefully not too distant) future where Robert and Aaron have their own house and are married.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one has nearly succumbed to the delete button several times as it's much different to what I normally write. That said, I hope it's enjoyed anyway.

Robert comes home at the end of a long, tiring day. He’s had meetings out of town, long drives in the pouring rain which hasn’t let up once all day and he’s not had the chance to be home at all. It was a hard honest days work, but productive all the same. Lucrative. He stays in the car for a moment after having killed the engine, looking up at his house. The lights are all off, even Liv’s just to show how late he is back. There is just one lamp left in the kitchen, casting a faint pale glow through the blinds. He can only tell because it’s incredibly familiar to him, always a light left on when he‘s the last one in. Robert had thought it was Aaron being overly sentimental, but had found out a few weeks ago that it was Liv. The thought warms him, that this spiky aggressive fiery teenage girl cares enough to leave a sign of home, waiting for him to come into the house.

His and Aaron’s bedroom window is open, just an inch, the way Aaron likes it. He enjoys feeling the cool breeze across his heated body, no matter what the time of year is. Robert always moans about the cold and shuts it, which Aaron lets him do, despite the fact the fresh air helps Aaron to sleep. Especially when he’s on his own. Robert takes the keys from the car ignition, looking for the house key, his fingers brushing across the key ring that Vic had given him. A cheap plastic bucket and spade from when she’d gone away to the beach for a few days with Adam. Robert picks his house key off the ring and gets out of the car, careful to shut the car door quietly. Liv’ll only moan that he woke her up, stomping around, slamming doors, though she‘s by far the worst offender. 

He unlocks the front door, hearing the gentle squeak from the top hinge. That needs oiling, he’ll get Aaron to do that this weekend. No, he won’t, he realises. He rather likes their squeaking front door, slightly imperfect, a bit like them. Locking it behind him, he feels the instant release of tension that coming home always gives him. Here, he can be completely himself, there is no mask to hide behind within these four walls, and he has not got used to the feeling of freedom his home gives him. He hangs up his keys next to Aaron’s and Liv’s on the hooks in the kitchen. Aaron’s set are sparse, functional, no mementos on them at all. Liv’s has a shockingly pink fluffy teddy bear as a key ring. It’s so unlike her, but Robert knows it’s a gift from Gabby, so she doesn’t complain about it. Or not loudly at any rate. She once admitted to him that she hadn’t really had a friend before coming to this village. 

Robert slips off his shoes, takes his jacket off, putting both away before treading lightly over the wooden floorboards of their kitchen and turning the one remaining light off. Not before spotting Aaron’s work boots, almost thrown under the kitchen table, as if Robert won’t see them there, trailing in mud through their rather nice kitchen. For the moment, he doesn’t care. It’s a well battled argument, one Robert knows he will never win. Robert checks the back door is locked out of habit, rattling the door frame a little. Yep, all okay. His family is home, safe for the night.

Poking his head around the living room, he sees the TV on standby, one of his little grievances. That’ll be Liv, forgetting to switch it off. Mind you, Aaron’s just as bad half the time. Robert flicks the switch and folds the hand knitted blanket that had been casually thrown on the sofa. That one definitely is Liv. The blanket had been a house warming gift from Diane, and Robert loves it. Everything to his satisfaction downstairs, he quietly goes up the staircase, checking on Liv first, as hers is the first room he comes to, just to the left at the top of the stairs. He’s convinced one day he’ll look in, and she won’t be there. Sneaking out to some party or for some boy or girl. Whatever it is. But tonight she’s here, where she was supposed to be, her easy regular breathing deeply reassuring to Robert. The three of them had made it through another day then. He pulls her door gently closed before moving on.

Opening the door to their bedroom, he smiles from the doorway. Aaron is dozing, his face towards the window rather than the door, so Robert can only see the back of his head. Aaron’s shirtless, the bed sheets gathered around his waist and Robert thinks for the hundredth time that he must be freezing. Robert admires the curve of his husbands spine, letting his gaze slowly dip down every bone, until the sheets cover any further attempt he might make at watching, admiring his body. The bed sheets are cream, Robert’s choice. Aaron had fought it, but then gave in in the end. Robert had just known Aaron would look so good naked and tangled up in those expensive cream sheets. He wasn’t wrong, Aaron does look good in bed, waiting for him to come home. _He’s yours_. The words ring through Robert’s head as if he’s said them aloud, though he hasn’t. 

Robert walks around the bed, and turns his bedside lamp on. It makes Aaron twitch slightly, but otherwise doesn’t move. He gets his phone out of his pocket and puts it on charge, before taking off his watch. Robert smiles. Resting on his bedside table is a glass of whisky, already waiting for him. He knows Aaron misses him when he’s been gone from the small hours of the morning, especially when he’s too busy to even text him, like today. He takes a sip, letting the alcohol start to seep into him, warm him up a little. It really is cold today. Speaking of, he goes to the other side of the room and shuts the window. This stills the air in the room, and it is that that finally makes Aaron blink awake.

“Mm?”

“Hi,” Robert says, his voice soft, the tone only Aaron gets to hear. Aaron relaxes, recognising Robert’s voice, rolling over slightly. Robert leans across him and kisses him. It’s a soft sweet kiss, a melding of lips with a hint of Aaron’s mint toothpaste under the surface. God knows what Robert himself tastes like, on the road all day, jumping from meeting to meeting.

“Good day?” Aaron whispers.

“Fine,” Robert says, not wanting to talk about it now.

“Come to bed.”

“No, I need a shower first,” he says. He does, he feels dirty and tired, and he won’t be able to completely relax until he feels clean.

“Don’t be long,” Aaron tells him, pulling up the duvet and curling up comfortably. Robert smiles at him. He never tires of seeing Aaron resting so easily, after everything he’s been through. Robert finishes his whisky before going into the bathroom, letting the shower heat up while he strips off. All he wants to do is to curl up against Aaron and slip into oblivious sleep, but the prospect is much more attractive after a shower.

The hot water eases the knots in his back, the tiredness from working so long. He uses the citrus shower gel which he knows Aaron loves on his skin.

He wraps a towel around his waist, just on the off chance Liv pokes her head out of her bedroom, before abandoning the towel on his bedroom floor and finally, blissfully getting into bed with his husband, the man he instinctively knows is the love of his life. Aaron shifts at the mattress dipping, both of them curling up together, lazily. Aaron moans as he catches the scent of his shower gel, pressing his nose under Robert’s jaw and breathing in deeply. He lets out a noise almost like a whimper in satisfaction making Robert smile.

“Did you have a good day?” Robert asks, wrapping his arms tightly around him.

“No,” Aaron says. “Liv wants a kitten.”

“Oh, God,” Robert groans, making Aaron chuckle, the satisfying noise vibrating through Robert’s body. “No, I definitely haven’t had enough sleep to have that fight.” Aaron laughs again, both of them settling into sleep, still cuddled up with each other, enjoying the warm skin, the comfort of each other. Robert can’t stop the small smile from appearing on his face, how satisfied he is in his life right now.

This life he has, this life he only recently realised he had to work so hard to keep, is nothing like the picture of what he thought would make him happy. For years, he’d worked towards the ideal, what he thought happiness should look like. Only to get there and realise he was so miserable that it had never been worth all the effort in the first place. But this? Every moment is special. He dearly hopes he never loses the feeling of how lucky he is. His family is unconventional, odd, annoying and stubborn as hell. But they are his, and he is theirs. It’s imperfectly perfect, and he adores it this way. No, nothing he has now was in the plan. But then, life never goes to script, does it?

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got such a good reception to the last chapter, I thought I’d do another one from Aaron’s pov. This is set on a different day, just in case there’s any confusion. Enjoy!

Aaron awoke first, he usually did as Robert always had been a heavy sleeper. The duvet feels heavy, warm, buried in a cocoon of safety. He doesn’t want to get up, but knows he has to. Looking at the digital clock on his side of the bed he sees that he has at least five minutes before he has to move, to start with his day. He looks at his husband, letting his eyes graze across the freckles dotted on Robert’s face. Most of them are unnoticeable in everyday life, but Aaron is close enough to see every detail. His fingers itch to trace them, but he knows Robert will wake at the touch, and that he doesn’t want. Aaron watches as Robert’s pale eyelashes flutter slightly within his dreams. How can one man look so beautiful? It almost feels unfairly selfish that he gets this every single day. Not that Aaron’s complaining. He can just about see Robert’s stubble, even though at this close a distance it’s still difficult to see. Robert hates that, even on his days off of work one of the first things he does when he wakes is shave. Though for him, personally, Aaron loves feeling Robert’s stubble grazing his skin. It’s a novelty he only gets occasionally and it never fails to thrill him.

“You’re watching me.” Robert speaks with his eyes shut, not even opening them once and it warms Aaron’s heart how well Robert knows him. He doesn’t even have to look to read Aaron’s behaviour. Years ago, he may have found that stifling, but not now. Now it’s reassuring that he’s married to someone who knows him so well.

“Well, you look good,” Aaron replies. This makes a smile appear on his face, eyes finally open. Aaron stares into Robert’s beautiful eyes, the blue gaze appearing light at the moment, before the troubles of the day start to weigh him down all over again. He looks younger for a few minutes. Aaron gets to see this, he gets to treasure these special moments. They’ve been married for nearly a year, and it does not get old or boring. Aaron wonders if it ever will. 

Their alarm goes and Robert turns over to switch it off, leaving Aaron watching the flex and strain of Robert’s muscles in his back. He feels a sudden urge to sink his teeth into Robert’s skin, to feel Robert tense and groan under his mouth. Robert turns back to Aaron and smirks as if he knows what he’s thinking. He snakes his hands under the sheets and grabs Aaron’s hips, pulling their bodies flush against each other. Aaron enjoys Robert’s beautifully large hands on his skin, anywhere at all on his body. Especially like now, when Robert’s thumbs start to circle teasingly on his skin. Robert’s smirk grows wider. He knows just what he’s doing to Aaron, but Aaron doesn’t pull away. Being, quite literally under Robert‘s control thrills him in a way it never occurred to him that he‘d enjoy. A way that, to be honest, he probably wouldn’t enjoy with anyone else. Robert knows his body, knows every little secret space that gets him moaning that even his hands on Aaron‘s waist is enough to get his pulse racing.

“We don’t have time,” Aaron says in response to Robert‘s pointed look. Robert shrugs as best he can while laying on his side. Instead he surges forward and kisses Aaron softly. Aaron enjoys his full lips, the familiar taste of him, and especially the slight rasp of Robert‘s stubble, the friction against his own face. As if thinking the same thing, Robert gets up, throwing the duvet back making Aaron shiver at the sudden rush of cold air.

“Need to shave,” Robert says before vanishing from the room. Aaron sighs, but gets up anyway, unable to stop the day from coming. Aaron throws on a t shirt and his jogging bottoms before knocking on Liv’s bedroom door to wake her up. The t shirt is short sleeved, showing his scars but Aaron’s got to the point that he doesn’t care. This is his home, his safe space. No one here judges him for his scars, and within this building, he doesn’t feel ashamed. He should never feel that way here. “Liv, get up!” he calls.

“… early…” she moans back.

“I’ll get breakfast on,” Aaron says, knowing that food is enough to persuade her most days. He goes down stairs, bare feet padding on the cold floor. He wants nothing more than to stay wrapped up in his warm bed with Robert right now. Instead he turns the heating up, going into the kitchen to fill the kettle and start getting breakfast ready. Bread in the toaster, orange juice for Liv, coffee for Robert, tea for himself.

By the time the first round of toast pops up, Liv has appeared at the kitchen table, still in her pyjamas, blinking herself awake. She almost falls on the toast, devouring it in seconds.

“Didn’t you eat last night?” Aaron asked, seeing her wolf it down.

“Ashley had a… thing,” Liv said. “Feeding me and Gabby wasn’t Laurel’s first priority. That’s really good,” she adds, nodding at the toast. Aaron has nothing to say to that, just puts extra slices of bread in the toaster. Which means by the time Robert comes down, fully dressed, his breakfast isn’t waiting for him like it usually is. They have a habit, a routine which the three of them all like. Robert frowns, but doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t like to start the day off on the wrong foot. Neither of them do.

“Liv’s eating all the bread,” Aaron said in explanation as Robert shifts to the fridge to grab his blueberry jam that he loves on his toast in the morning. Aaron catches him as he passes, pressing a kiss to his husbands lips.

“Too early for me to see that,” Liv says, screwing up her face in distaste.

“Then get changed for school,” Robert says, the words vibrating against Aaron’s lips, they’ve barely parted. Liv huffs and storms up the stairs, leaving the two men to kiss passionately.

“Going to be long?” Aaron asks.

“No,” Robert says. “Half day. I’ve only got a couple of morning meetings. I’ll cook for us tonight.” Aaron smiles. Robert is a very good cook when he wants to give it the time. When they’re not too busy. They both hear the bathroom door slam upstairs and Aaron takes that as his cue that Liv’s finished. It’s a familiar morning rhythm for them.

“I’m going to have a shower,” he says as Robert takes a drink of his black coffee. Robert nods, adding more bread to the toaster before switching the radio on. Aaron pauses a moment at the door, watching his husband move around their kitchen. It satisfies him in a way that it probably shouldn’t. It's good, and homely, and _normal._

In the shower, a quick one because he guesses Liv will want the bathroom soon, Aaron lets the hot water loosen his muscles. Robert might have an easy day today, but Aaron knows there is a lot of work at the scrap yard to do. It’ll be a hard. physical day for him. The prospect of coming home later to Robert cooking him dinner sounds fantastic.

When Aaron comes downstairs, now fully dressed, he smiles at the sight that confronts him. Robert and Liv almost draped on the sofa, Robert plaiting her hair, fingers quick and practised.

“Look, if you don’t stay still, it won’t look right,” Robert warns her, pulling a strand of hair rather harder than necessary.

“If you give me grief, I’ll tell everyone you’re the one plaiting and twisting my hair every morning,” Liv counters. “Ruin your image, that would.”

“Nah,” Robert says. “No one would believe you.” Liv laughs at that. “Pin.” She passes Robert a hair pin who slides it carefully into her twisted bun. He squeezes Liv’s shoulders, letting him know he’s finished and she jumps up.

“Thanks Rob.”

“I don’t think anyone would believe me were I to tell them that you’ve been pressed into being Liv’s hair stylist,” Aaron says with amusement, still at the doorway.

“Vic,” Robert said softly. “After mum died, I used to fiddle with her hair, it made her… calm down a bit when she missed her. When we _both_ missed her and I got good at it. Apparently it’s a muscle memory kind of thing which I haven’t lost. Never thought it would come in useful, though.”

“I love you,” Aaron says. Robert looks at him. Aaron’s not normally this vocal about his feelings, yes he’s gotten better at saying it, but it is still a relative rarity, and it means so much to Robert every single time he hears it.

“Where’d that come from?” Robert asks softly. Aaron just shrugs. The truth is, he feels it all the time. He loves this life that they have, this little slice of normal that he never thought he’d get. He may be bad at telling Robert how he feels, but in the quiet honest moments he feels it all the more. Especially when Robert isn’t putting on his mask, trying to hide behind a false bravado that never worked on Aaron in the first place. Robert kisses him, Aaron entwining his fingers in Robert‘s short hair, revelling in it. “Love you too,” he whispers, warming Aaron’s heart. “I have to go, got to catch my first meeting in Leeds.”

“Go,” Aaron says easily. He doesn’t ask for details about this meeting, he doesn’t check up on where Robert will be because the trust is there. It might have taken years to build up, but he wouldn’t give away that trust for everything. Once Robert had asked why Aaron never asked about his long days away. Aaron had answered honestly, reading between the lines that Chrissie always had checked on him. If Aaron’s being honest, probably with good reason, the amount of times he knew that he was sneaking around with Robert behind her back. But that’s gone, it’s in the past. He’s proud to feel that trust that Robert has earned. He has no fear that Robert’s anywhere other than where he’s supposed to be. Robert looks back at the door and gives him one last beautiful smile before leaving. Aaron listens to the crunch of gravel under Robert‘s feet, the car door opening then closing. Then the engine starting, and the car driving away, still feeling the echo of Robert‘s lips on his own.

“You taking me to school or what?” Liv asks, pulling him from his reverie.

“Bus,” Aaron says shortly. “Go on, you’ve not missed it yet.” She groans, but it’s more a token protest than anything else. This is a familiar routine by now, words said almost instantly without any thought behind them. Liv leaves the house, but returns in seconds. Aaron chucks her her house keys which she forgets every single day without fail. Half a smile appears on her face before she leaves, leaving Aaron alone in his house. And he realises that he’s happy and contended and that it took a lot of years to get here. It’s something he hopes to never take for granted as he rubs the band of his wedding ring for comfort. He's happy.


End file.
